Effective public speaking can be a difficult skill to master. There are many different factors that contribute to how well an orator presents to an audience, and how the audience reacts to the orator. If an orator is nervous and as a result rushes the speech, uses filler words, goes off topic, etc. this can be a distraction for the audience. The audience might then lose interest in the speech.
Techniques have been proposed to help orators improve their public speaking abilities. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 7,941,318 issued to Lu, entitled “Public Speaking Self-Evaluation Tool,” describes the use of microphones and cameras to provide feedback to a speaker based on speech patterns and eye movement. While such information might be analyzed after a speech has been given to enhance future speaking engagements, there is little to help the speaker make improvements while giving a speech.
Each speech given is different in the sense that it might involve a different topic, might be given to a different audience, might be at a different venue, etc. Further, the audience's attention level might vary depending on external factors such as the amount of distraction (e.g., noise, temperature, etc.), time of day, etc. Thus, feedback collected after the fact from one speaking engagement might not apply to another, different audience, different venue, etc.
Accordingly, techniques for collecting real-time comprehensive data and providing immediate feedback to an orator about his/her performance and/or level of audience interest and participation would be desirable.